First Semester Explore Columbus

On November 8, 2020 my mentee and I went to Tuttle Park located right off of North campus. We decided to go here for our explore Columbus assignment because it was only a few minute walk from my house, the weather was beautiful, and we wanted to do something outdoors due to the Covid-19 virus. Meranda met me in front of my house and we walked to the park together mid-afternoon. I run through Tuttle Park quite often and I like to take walks there to help me destress from school. When Meranda told me she had never been there, I thought it would be the perfect place to go to so we could relax and enjoy the outdoors. Personally, my favorite part of the park is the bridge looking over the river. Many days, I specifically stop at the bridge for a few minutes, soak up the sound of the flowing water, and look through the trees. This area is especially mesmerizing when the sun hits it just right and the light overwhelms me with a sense of peace. I walked with Meranda to this bridge and also pointed her to the area of the woods where I go to sit on a tree stump and enjoy the weather. We continued to walk further down the bike trail and stopped to sit on a bench under a shelter to take the opportunity to get to know each other more. I conducted the interview portion for the assignment there with her as well. I learned a lot about Meranda through the interview process and throughout our walk; I also felt we were becoming more comfortable with each other. 

We talked about family life, relationships, classes, future careers, OSU campus life, etc. I wanted to find out how she has been dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and what she does to have fun while continuing to take precautionary measures. She mentioned to me that she does not like going out too often because she wants to stay as healthy as possible and not risk getting others sick as well. Throughout this semester, she has stayed in the dorm to debrief from the long week and will often go see her boyfriend at his house over the weekend. I could relate to this because ever since the pandemic hit, I have many concerns about leaving my house too much since that can risk my health and the health of my friends or family. Throughout the weekends, I will normally hang out with my roommates and have a movie night or I will also go see my boyfriend over the weekend since we are long distanced. He goes to University of Cincinnati, so if I am able to visit him at his house on weekends, then I will take the opportunity. After this discussion, we talked about classes and what she should take for the second semester. We are both studying Psychology and Criminology, so I was able to assist her in some recommendations for what classes to take or to not take next semester. In particular, Meranda told me that she needs to take the Criminal Justice and Criminology courses to cover some of her required credits. I took Criminal Justice my second semester last year and I am currently wrapping up the Criminology course for this semester. I recommended that she take Criminal Justice before Criminology because it provides a good basis of some concepts that students learn in Criminology and Criminology also goes more in depth with harder assignments. I also warned her that the exams are difficult and it can be hard to keep up with the speed of the class, so if she needed any study tips to text me any time. Throughout my time in these courses, I have created lots of review guides that were my life savers to keep my grades up and if Meranda wants to know how I created those reviews, I would be more than happy to provide guidance. 

After our in depth conversation, we decided to start heading back toward the direction we came into the park and walk back to my house. We arrived at my house, we said our goodbyes, and she started walking back to Smit h-Steeb. Meranda said she really loved going to Tuttle Park and was glad that I introduced it to her. I highly recommend going to this area because of how pretty it can be and how serene it is. I love walking through during the fall season because you are embraced with all of the different leaf colors and you can watch them slowly start to fall to the ground. Before I went to this park, I thought all areas right off of OSU campus were simply city life with lots of stores, restaurants, and bars. Tuttle Park is a blessing that is a little bit hidden away and once you find it, you start to forget that you are surrounded by busy city life. There are a lot of places I want to go to with Meranda, but with Covid cases at an all time high, neither of us feel comfortable currently. We are hoping next semester can be different, but for now, we can stick to more simplistic areas and maybe go try out a popular ice cream shop we have never had before.